The new research suggests that some of the most prominent advocates in both the 'pro' and 'anti' camps in the EU debate may be harming their own cause. Neither Europhile Tony Blair nor Eurosceptic Nigel Farage is trusted by voters when they talk about Britain's EU membership.

Debates about globalisation examine impacts on all concerned - whether importers of labour, food and goods or those countries losing key workers, giving up their food or being turned into polluted assembly lines. Debates about the EU and migration which lack that level of empathy - and concentrate purely on what Britain is supposedly losing - simply miss the point.

We have a legal duty to provide protection to those who have a well-founded fear of persecution; a principle that the British public broadly supports, even if politicians and the officials who carry out their mandate don't.

Behind the political discourses, the media headlines, the highly-frantic speeches and the amusing campaign, it is easy to forget that we are dealing with human beings whose lived experiences cannot be reduced to mere statistics or neat caricatures.